3:1 Peter's first letter was most likely 1 Peter. He implied that he wrote this letter soon after the earlier one. This second epistle, he said, went to the same audience in northern Asia Minor (cf. 1 Pet. 1:1), primarily Gentile Christians. His purpose in writing the second letter was to refresh his readers' memories (cf. 1:13). "Sincere"means unflawed by evil. He gave his readers credit for not having embraced the teaching of the heretics yet.
"An effective antidote to false doctrine is to recall and dwell on the teaching already perceived."131
"The English sincere' is from the Latin words sine cera, without wax.' Some pottery salesmen would use wax to cover cracks and weak places in pottery. Such a cover-up could be detected only by holding the jug up to the sun to see if any weaknesses were visible. Such a vase was sun-judged' (the lit. meaning of the Gr. eilikrines). God wants His people to have sun-judged minds, not those in which their sin spots have been covered over."132
3:2 Again Peter put the teaching of the apostles, which these men received from Jesus Christ, on a level of authority equal with the writings of the Old Testament prophets (cf. 1:12-21; 3:16; Acts 1:16; Rom. 9:29; Heb. 4:7).
"The commandment' is used here in the same way as in 2:21 . . .: it emphasizes the ethical aspect of the Christian message because it is on this, along with the eschatological expectation, that the author wishes to insist, in opposition to the false teachers."133
